Untitled

By Charles Anderson (Chuck)

Ah, you Asians are an unusual race
Send funny notes, but hard to meet face to face.
You’re shy, they’re shy, I’m shy
but no way anyone can live up to Lisa’s talk of a helluva guy.

But another splendid day to grind out at ACDC
The music, the booze, and back stage passes all for free.
No wait, that is a group of a different kind
You all just have Jeremy to make you lose your mind. 

No response can do the original poem justice
The humor and the warmth make meeting Michael a must for us,
And so with a hearty laugh and a joyful tear on my cheek.
I proclaim that Lisa and Michael to be the most delightful of freaks.

===

About the poet: Charlie (“Chuck”) Anderson is my coworker Lisa’s special friend all the way from North Kingstown, Rhode Island. He hails from somewhere in Michigan, and from what I’ve been told, he’s a passionate follower of Detroit-based sports franchises. To me, his predilection (or as others may say, passion) for following sports teams that usually end up on the losing side of the scoreboard is what led to my line about questioning his intelligence. But I mean this in jest, of course.

This is his response to me, sent over e-mail. I am actually a bit interested in this idea of exchanging lines; it reminds me of the show, Yo Momma, but with a much friendlier, family-oriented, and witty tone. 

Again, if you’d like to be featured on Michael Chen Poetry, please send me an e-mail. 

Greek

By David Atkinson (Frozone)

“Two or three?” he asked.  Met with equal confusion they sighed.
“Six or seven?” she inquired of the group.  They were supposed to
help.  It wasn’t like it was their job, though because for the longest time
time and time again they could not open the mailbox to receive a check.
Predictions only go so far, but they are strengthened with experience and turn
Into theories which can turn into facts written in papers and on slides to be
Shown in halls between six walls-
and then he gets to open the mailbox and get his check.

They stay there and look at the faces
of others to see what they say and in a way wish the problem had
an answer that wasn’t so far away.  Arms can’t reach it.  That’s been proven.
None can teach it.
But
there is a solution.
At least they’ve become friends.

“Two or three?” he asked.  Met with equal confusion they sighed.
“Six or seven?” she inquired of the group.  They had
no clue and then flipped their switches on so that they could stand a chance.
Predictions plus the switch functions as a delta function functions.  Nothing
becomes something.  Greek becomes
English or English speakers become bilingual, either way there is understanding.
Superposition is applied to group knowledge such that
solutions are reached.  Maybe the bond is here.  Maybe the bond is when superposition
leads to error because local coordinates aren’t translated to global.
And everything falls down
together.

Either way a different set of six walls are waiting.  And those mailboxes are waiting, too.
If there’s no switch the delta won’t get activated because time for some goes
from here to there at a steady pace, but time for others goes forward at a rate that never allows it to reach a certain spot in time
in the future.  The time before where the switch gets turned on.
Here they speak Greek in different dialects, but they’re still friends.

===

About the poet: David Atkinson is a student at Brown University studying to become a real engineer. I had the pleasure of meeting David a few years ago. During this time, Disney had released a digital animated film, The Incredibles, and somebody had the wisdom to recognize that David looked exactly the same as the character Frozone in the movie. The fact that David was sporting a fro during all this time only helped us affirm his new pseudonym. Later on, when the fro transformed into cornrows (like Allen Iverson), David added Cornzone as an additional reference. Hopefully, we will not have to see Baldzone one day – you know I respect you, right?

He has his own person webspace somewhere out there; please feel free to Google-stalk as you wish. Thank you for sharing your poetry with us, Frozone.